wythall radio club

It may even have escaped the more eagle-eyed members of Wythall Radio Club that this year has seen the release of a new Amateur Radio Band here in the UK.

472 kHz has been granted to us after quite a few years of experimentation under a Notice of Variation to the licence on 501 kHz.  472 kHz is at the bottom end of the old Medium Wave band and probably constitutes new territory for many amateurs, not just “Wythallians”. 

To help unravel the mystery of MF operation, RadCom columnist and low bands expert (and Wythall Radio Club member, we should add!) Dave G3YXM is giving a presentation this coming Tuesday at the Club. He will be opening up the mysteries of this band and explaining just how we can get active on it.

Strangely this talk coincides with an article in the just-released December RadCom magazine where Mike G3XDV writes about the very same topic. They must have been watching our club calendar to time their articles to fit in with us!

So why not pop along on Tuesday 19th November at 2030 to the Club Shack, Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall. B47 6LZ? Visitors as always are very welcome.

Now that Wythall Radio Club members are beginning to “wake up” again after the efforts of putting on G100RSGB(!), here is a gallery of a few photos from our activation of the event.

Feel free to browse and click for full size pictures – captions will give you a little more information about each one.

We are hoping to post a video of our two days of operation soon too, so keep checking this site for more information!

Members of Wythall Radio Club are still buzzing about our time with the G100RSGB callsign (see entires below!)

Now our technical wizards have grabbed the webcam stills that were being taken every minute or so during our activation and you can re-live the 2 days of operation on YouTube!

Just click on this link for Webcam 1 and this link for Webcam 2.  Webcam 1 had a great view of a radio controlled clock and you can literally see time going by!

See if you can spot our VIP visitors and also some strange goings-on with a calendar?!  There was something very fishy going on there…

Wythall Radio Club’s two days with the G100RSGB call sign is now over and we thank all stations for their contacts with us and their kind words about our operation.

We made around 2250 contacts in our time with the call sign, beating our self-imposed target of 2000. Our logs are taking a little longer to collate as we are cross-checking and merging 6 separate stations worth of logs to make sure final totals are totally accurate (…and we have day jobs!) So please bear with us – logs will be made available to the RSGB asap!

Thank you to all the amateurs who made our activation such a success!

Graham Coomber G0NBI, RSGB General Manager meets Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Sajid Javid MP

This afternoon, Wythall Radio Club was proud to welcome two distinguished visitors to their activation of G100RSGB.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Sajid Javid MP and the General Manager of the RSGB, Graham Coomber G0NBI came to see for themselves how to have fun with RF!

Mr Javid revealed his interest as a 12-year-old in CB radio and how he spent his youth building radio equipment bought from Tandy! He also expressed a wish to visit us again informally in the future. Graham Coomber meantime took to the microphone and worked the RSGB callsign as if it were his own – well, in a sense it is!

Chairman Mike G4VPD demonstrates a 10m contact to the USA to Sajid Javid MP

The members of Wythall Radio Club would like to thank our visitors for their time in coming to see us and we look forward to seeing them again in due course.

Meantime, there are still stations to be worked, so keep an eye on our live board here to see how we are getting on and if you are in our recent logs.

We are trying hard to activate as many bands as we have antennas for and reach our target of 2000 contacts in 2 days!

(Note: Live Log book and chat facility have now been removed)

What a weekend! 7 members of Wythall Radio Club have been joining with radio amateurs from all over the world at the Radio Society of Great Britain’s Annual Convention.

Wythall Radio Club’s “Magnificent Seven”?

Since this is the RSGB’s 100th year of existence, this a was a very special event and those who represented Wythall Radio Club were very honoured to be there.

The highlight for many was a lecture given by Nobel Prize winner Joe Taylor K1JT. Many amateurs have heard of (and use!) his JT65 and WSPR software, but he opened our eyes to other digital worlds out there too!

Other fascinating lectures included an historical stream, complete with dips into the RSGB archives and a fascinating talk by Dr Elizabeth Bruton from Leeds University on the role of Radio Amateurs in World War 1. Many of us did not realise what an important part the earliest radio enthusiasts played in the 1914-18 conflict.

Ofcom, the UK regulators, were also welcome visitors, kicking off lively discussion on a forthcoming licence review that will affect all of us. But of course, lots of food and drink were enjoyed with friends old and new, notably Laurent F1JKJ, who travelled from the south of France on his own to visit the Convention and became an honorary WRC member for Saturday night!

It all ended on a happy note for Tim M0URX – he won a Yaesu Desk Mic in the raffle!

Enjoy the photos below and see if you can catch some of the flavour of the weekend.  We are looking forward to going back next year, almost certainly in greater numbers!

It’s that time of year again, when the members of Wythall Radio Club start thinking of having another go at learning Morse Code!

Our weekly Morse Code learning class started up again last Tuesday and a record number of members attended the introductory session. It seems that in these days of noisy HF locations and short gardens with restricted antennas, radio enthusiasts are instead turning to more efficient modes like Morse and PSK31 Data to help them make contacts.

Using Morse Code can give you up to a 20dB advantage on transmit (depending on who you listen to!)  That’s like running full legal power into a beam in comparison to using a standard G5RV antenna that so many hams use…. (and you can keep your G5RV too with no need for a tower and costly amplifiers!)

If you are interested in learning the code and want to see what the fuss is about, the Morse class is on every Tuesday (usually!) at 1945 in the shack at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall. B47 6LZ.  Visitors are always welcome.

Traders outside the hall

A grand total of 7 Wythall Radio Club members have been having great fun (with just a little RF involved!) today at the RSGB National Hamfest.

Dave G3YXM acted as driver for Ian M0IDR, David G0ICJ (sporting his 50 years of RSGB membership badge!) & Chris G7DDN. Making their own way there were David G7IBO, Tim M0URX and Chairman Mike G4VPD.

It was great to be able to welcome Eric Swartz WA6HHQ to the event and get his signed QSL card too!

Bargains were seen everywhere and there is no doubt that those who went had a great time, even if their wallets were lighter upon the return journey.

Check out the photos below – the weather was fantastic too!

Today is a big day in the UK Amateur Radio calendar and it’s one that Wythall Radio Club members will be enjoying too!

At 1000 this morning, special guest Eric Swartz WA6HHQ, founder of Elecraft Radio (on his first visit to the UK)  opens the doors to the RSGB National Hamfest at Newark in Nottinghamshire.

A team of Wythall Radio Club members is spending today (Friday) at the event and will probably be “having fun with ££” which we hope will lead to more “having fun with RF” as our club motto states!

We look forward to meeting many friends at this event, and doubtless a bacon sandwich (or three!) will be swilled down with a beer or two…

CW on the beach!

Wythall Radio Club member Barry M0DGQ has arrived back from the Cape Verde Islands and does he have some tales to tell!

From August 27 until September 11 together with wife Ann, he took the holiday of a lifetime to the Isle of Sal. While planned as a special birthday treat for Ann, Barry knows that, for a Radio Amateur, no holiday is complete without some form of radio! So also along for the ride came a home built 3-band Morse Code transceiver, 10m fishing pole, antennas and battery!

Operation was from both the beach and the hotel apartment. Of all the bands used however, 20m was by far the most successful. Europe, Japan, Africa, Ukraine and Brazil were all worked with ease. Even more exciting was that Barry was heard and worked here in Wythall by quite a few other club members – quite an achievement given the huge pile-ups Barry had to handle.

For more details on Barry’s operation, why not visit his own account here?